The present invention relates to an electronic imaging device, which functions to reproduce imaged image, to advance and display a scene.
Recently, an electronic imaging device known as a digital camera became widely available.
The subject image imaged with the digital camera is imaged on a CCD element and photoelectric processing is performed. There is now a CCD element having 1,400,000 or more pixels, and it has become possible to image with a high resolution.
The image signal that the photoelectric conversion processing obtains is recorded on the memory card as digital data. The image recorded on the memory card can be reproduced on an LCD display of the digital camera. As described above, it is also an important, desirable feature of the digital camera to be able to reproduce the imaged image there.
In addition, in the digital camera, the scene can sequentially be advanced from the latest image in a state of displaying the imaged image with a full screen display on the LCD display. In other digital cameras, the desired image is selected from the index image having a plurality of reduced images and the selected image can be displayed on a full screen.
However, since, for example, several seconds are required for reading the image (hereafter, it is called as xe2x80x9cfull imagexe2x80x9d) which is displayed on a full screen, the user of the digital camera must wait until this full image is displayed.
The technology, which selects the desired image from the index image and displays the full image, is a technology developed to reduce such waiting time as much as possible. However, it is necessary to wait for the reproduction display of the full image after the image is selected. When desiring to advance the scene to the following image during waiting time when the full image is displayed, it is necessary to wait until the full image display is completed to obtain the next image.
Especially, in recent years, because of the increasing capacity of the memory card, that enabled taking 200 and/or 300 pictures with one memory card, shortening the scene advance access time to each image is strongly demanded.
An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic imaging device which makes it possible to shorten scene advance access time to imaged images.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic imaging device which makes it possible to further speed-up an access to a lot of images stored on the memory card.
An electronic imaging device according to the present invention is characterized by comprising: a reproduction section which reproduces at least one of a thumbnail image and a full image; display section to display reproduced at least one of the thumbnail image and the full image; a scene select section which selects a desired thumbnail image and outputs a scene select signal; and display controller to display a full image corresponding to the desire thumbnail signal in the display section based on the scene select signal output at the end, and the display controller controls the record reproduction section before reproducing the full image corresponding to the thumbnail image based on the scene select signal output at the end when the plurality of scene select signals are input.
The preferred features of an electronic imaging device of the present invention are as follows.
(1) The scene select section includes a select key which can select the thumbnail image every one scene in order of imaging or the opposite order thereof.
(2) A display switch instruction section which reads a plurality of thumbnail images to the reproduction section, and directs to display it on the display section as index image, wherein the scene select section selects the desired thumbnail image from the index image is further provided.
(3) The scene select section includes a select key which can select the thumbnail image every one scene in order of imaging or the opposite order thereof, and an index select key which selects the index image.
(4) The scene select key and the index select key have the cross shape installed as one body.
Since an electronic imaging device according to the present invention interrupts reproduction of the full image and reproduces the full image based on a new scene select signal when a new scene select signal is input while reproducing the full image, the user obtains the following image without waiting for the full image display when the plurality of scene select signals are input.
Another electronic imaging device, which can read at least one of a thumbnail image and a full image from a record medium where the thumbnail image and the full image are separately recorded for one scene, according to the present invention is characterized by comprising: a memory section which memorizes at least one of the thumbnail image and the full image read from the record medium; a scene select section which selects a desired thumbnail image; display section to display at least one of the full image corresponding to the thumbnail image and the thumbnail image memorized to the memory section; and reading controller to memorize the full image corresponding to the thumbnail image to the memory section after the thumbnail image corresponding to the scene selected by the scene select section is displayed on the display section, and the reading controller interrupts memorizing the full image data to the memory section, when the scene besides the full image is selected before completing the memory of the full image to the memory section.
The preferred features of another electronic imaging device according to the present invention are as follows.
(1) The reading controller interrupts memorizing the full image to the memory section, and displays a thumbnail image corresponding to another scene newly selected in the display section.
(2) The scene select section includes a key which can select the thumbnail image every one scene in order of imaging or an opposite order thereof.
In another electronic imaging device according to the present invention, the thumbnail image, which can be displayed in a comparatively short time, is displayed during memorizing the full image, which requires a long time, to the memory section, when the user sees the thumbnail image and the scene advance instruction is input before the memory of the full image is completed, the memory of the full image is discontinued. Then, the following thumbnail image is displayed and read of the full images is started. When read of the full image is completed while the user does not input the scene advance instruction, the full image is displayed instead of the thumbnail image. Therefore, when the scene advance is performed, the user does not wait for the display of the full image, confirm the content of the image by the thumbnail image, and perform further scene advance after confirming. Since the full image is memorized while displaying the thumbnail image, the full image is displayed at several seconds after the thumbnail is displayed.
Since it is possible to advance or retreat the scene by the index image unit, even if a lot of images are stored in the storage medium, the desired image can be accessed at high speed.
Therefore, the following advantages are achieved according to the present invention.
(1) When the scene select signal is input while reproducing the full image, since the reproduction of the full image is interrupted, the thumbnail image (or, full image) corresponding to a new scene select signal can be reproduced and displayed without waiting for the reproduction end of the full image.
(2) Since the scene selection is performed by the thumbnail image with the short reproduction time, the content of the image can be promptly confirmed without waiting for the display of full image with a long reproduction processing time.
(3) Since the full image is displayed in several seconds after the thumbnail is displayed, the image display can be seen high minute full image without waiting the image display.
(4) Since the display scene is selected by putting the desired thumbnail image into the selectable state from the index image in which the thumbnail image is arranged in the predetermined order, the comparison between images and the selection of the image can be facilitated.
(5) Since the scene is advanced or retreated by the index image unit, even if a lot of images are stored in the storage medium, the desired image can be accessed at high speed.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.